


The Dark vanguard

by Unknownking



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Europa, Friendship, Game: Destiny 2: Beyond Light DLC, Gen, Rocks and maps
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 16:48:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29493090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unknownking/pseuds/Unknownking
Summary: The Darkness has arrived in Sol and the vanguard doesn’t know what to do. In the Light there is life and property, but that’s not enough to push back it’s opposite. And the Darkness will consume everything unless stoppedEris know this, but lacks the information to acted.But with a familiar yet unfamiliar face making her reappearance, Eris may just see the spark of hope rekindled.Oh! And the Drifter’s here too. What could go wrong?
Relationships: The Drifter & Eris Morn
Kudos: 1





	The Dark vanguard

**Author's Note:**

> This was written right after the beyond light reveal trailer. Planned on posting it right after it launched, but the new lore cased a massive delay and I was also power grinding. 
> 
> So here it is a week into the second season of beyond light. Hope you enjoy. :)

Everyone know that the Drifter wasn’t a well liked among the tower. Hard to trust a shady man who keeps more secrets then Glimmer. The few who did to trust him were ether incredibly gullible or stupid enough to think they could win in a fight against him. And of course their were those he seduced in to trusting him, but he quickly left them after he had gotten what he wanted. Over all, he had gotten used to looking over his shoulder at all times. 

That paranoia is what alerted him to Her presence.

It was late in the evening in the tower. The Drifter was looking over his notes about the pyramids that had appeared over the many planetoids the Vanguard occupied. He had to report everything thing he found to the Vanguard immediately. Zavala had made it quite clear he wasn’t to try any funny business or both him and his ghost would be shot by every Guardian in the tower. 

A soft sound from behind set warning bell off in his head. His den was often visited by Guardians looking for Gambit bounties, but nobody was stupid enough to try to sneak up on him. And this sound was so quiet that most would write off as their imagination.

But he had so many enemies that he had learned the difference between his imagination and a person. Not all of them were a threat to him, being a powerful Risen he could kill most anyone unless they had the power to bend reality at their will, but anyone who could move this quietly was clearly very skilled and dangerous.

Instantly, he spun around pulling his handcannon from his belt, but before he could shot, the intruder delivered a powerful kick, knocked the gun out of his hand. A rifle was shoved into his face. 

The stranger had disarmed him and had positioned themself into a dominated position in one quick movement. If he had been a lesser man he would be at their mercy of their speedy take down, but unfortunately for them, he wasn’t a lesser man. The moment he was disarmed he had moved to plan B. 

They Exo, who had so rudely intruded, shifted her gaze to the small mote in his hand, then behind her at the Taken knight pressing a Boomer against the back of her head. 

“So what’ll it be sister? You can kill me if you want, but do you have a life to spare? Cus I’ve got plenty.” The Exo narrowed her eyes. “I’m not your enemy.” The Drifter expected her to argue, but not like this. Not only was she as cool as a cucumber, she wasn’t even scared of the prospect of death. Was she a Risen?

“Well, I don’t mean to brag, but I know all my friends in this system and you an’t one.” The Exo narrowed her eyes slightly. “You have friends? Maybe this time things will be different if people are willing to put up with a snake like you. I almost miss seeing you dead.” The Drifter smirked. Now she had his full attention. She clearly know him somehow, but what perplexed him was that he had never seen her before. And after that comment, he got the impression she know something he didn’t. How interesting. He couldn’t remember the last time someone know something he didn’t.

“Well then, this could be interesting. Shall we talk?” With a snap of his fingers, he dispelled the mote and the Taken vanished into thin air. The Drifter calmly walked over to a table with a steaming coffee pot on top and poured himself a cup. “Hope you don’t mind if I don’t share, coffee can be pricey these days. But then again, you don’t really need to drink do ya sister.” The Exo ignore him as she slung her rifle onto her back.

“I don’t have time for pleasantries.” She spoke calmly, but he could hear the urgency in her voice. Whatever she wanted, there was clearly a rapidly shrinking window to get it. “I need you to go the these coordinates tomorrow. I’ll tell you when to leave in the morning, so be ready. It important that you be there.” Without another word, she turned and walked towards the door.

The Drifter yawned lazily and leaned back in his chair until it was resting on two legs, his feet resting on the table covered in food wrappers. “Sorry sister. I’m going to need more information then that.” He drawled while examining his fingernails, he made sure to move extra slowly just to ruffle her feathers. The Exo had stopped in her tracks as she glared back at him. “How about you tell me why it’s so important that I listen to you. Then maybe, just maybe, I can make some time in my busy schedule. If you can’t, well then, take a hike. I’ve got better things to do.” He nonchalantly sipped his coffee as he waited for the Exo’s reply. 

“Because if you don’t the Darkness will destroy everything. Including your little sanctuary inside the nine realms.” 

The Drifter lost his balance and fell onto the floor with a crash. How the hell did this she know about that!? The next second three taken Ogres had manifested around the Exo, their eyes glowing ready to melt her into a puddle of molten metal.

“Okay, you were interesting, now however? Your just a creep. I’m starting to think there more to you than just a crazy lunatic. Who are you and how do you know so much. And don’t give me any sass. I get enough of that from the Guardians.”

The Exo just sighed heavily. For someone who was surrounded and outnumbered she was surprisingly calm. “I don’t have time to explain, nor do I have time to explain why I don’t have time to explain. There’s something you need to see. You’ll understand once you get there. Then maybe, I’ll have time to explain.” She turned away without another word, then she disappeared from the spot leaving no trace she was ever there. 

The Drifter eyes were slits as he looked at his taken. She hadn’t transmated or used Hive magic to leave, and even if she had, his Taken Primevals would have been able to follow her into the Sea of screams instantly. What ever it was she clearly had some kind of power he had never seen.

“Fricken lunatic.” The Drifter snarled. Suddenly his ghost appeared in front of him, it’s eye blinking rapidly. “What do you want?” It beamed a series of numbers across the wall of the room. The Drifter recoiled in surprise. Theses were the coordinates the stranger spoke of. And they were leading him to a moon he had been planing to visit.

“Europa.” He breathed out in disbelief. This wasn’t a coincidence. He had gotten a hold of Eris’s reports on the massages form the Darkness. They had also spoken of Europa and of power that it was willing to gift to those it saw fit. Now this Exo stranger appears out of no where and tell him to go there too? This couldn’t be a coincidence . 

With a sigh the Drifter sits down In a nearby chair and drums his finger on it’s arm. 

“This is getting annoying.” The Drifter closes his eyes and rubs the brig of his nose. As much as he didn’t want to do this Exo’s bidding, it looked like this was far to important to ignore. 

“Looks like I’ll be pulling another all nighter.” With a sigh he pressed a button on his belt and transmated an old Arctic survival suit. He hadn’t needed this since his time on that planet with those Light drinking sons-of-bitchs. 

“Hey ghost! Run a check on all reports of mysterious Exos who have powerful connections and send em to me. I need all the one related to Vex or Cabal! And don’t miss a single one!” His ghost flouted over to a Vanguard WiFi hacking device he had made and started pulling documents from their archives, his eye flashing with each one.

Meanwhile, the Drifter was calmly examined the suit and found it was far from useable. It was torn and had lost to much of it’s insulation. With a sigh he pulled the rebreather off the helmet and checked for any damage. Finding none, he decided this would have to do for now. All that was left was to find some new winter gear.

Before he could get very far, his tablet lit up. A quick glance told him that he had all the files he needed. The winter gear would have to wait.

He sat down and start skimming through the files looking for any key hints for his mystery woman. He didn’t find much until he came across a report detailing a patrol on Venus. It was right before the Vanguard made contact with the Awoken for the first time in years. And it was about the Black Garden.

He opened the file and started reading. Slowly a grin spread across his face. “How interesting miss Exo Stranger.” 

__________________________________________________________________________________

Eris Morn looked up at the earth hanging above her. Many would find it strange to be looking at their home from an object that was the fixture of myth, but Eris had spent more time on the moon then she had exploring Earth. Even in her Hunter days she had always preferred going on long expeditions into the far reaches of space. Looking back on her youth made her realize how much time had really passed during her centuries in the Hell mouth. It felt like was an eternity ago. 

Soft footsteps on the moon dust behind her brought Eris back to reality. She turned to find a curious sight. An Exo approaching with a familiar gun slung on her back. While Exos weren’t a rare sight to Eris, the gun was. It was the No time to explain. 

Guardians had been using a version of it since before she had escaped the Hell mouth and it had parts far beyond it’s time, somehow retuning bullets to the magazine. Later, it had reappear during Oryx’s invasion, where it once again baffled gunsmiths and cryptarchs alike.

But that was impossible. That gun had been destroyed during the Red war. And because of how complicated the part were, it was considered by the cryptarchs unrecoverable! So how had this Exo got one? 

And now that she thought about it, Eris didn’t recognize the Exo. And she know everyone who was stationed on this haunted rock. 

She called the Blind clutch (that had been illuminating her maps) back to her side. She didn’t need a gun to protect herself. She wasn’t completely in control over her new powers, but she had mastered it enough to easily fight off a lone Guardian. 

The Exo raised her hands as she approached. “I’m not here to fight.” She said, then placed her rifle onto the ground in between them. A gesture of faith showing she didn’t want to fight, or if she did she didn’t need a gun. Eris conjured several crystals of ice around herself just in case.

“Your power is impressive. Only a few weeks and you can already use Stasis without fear of it turning on you.” Stasis? Was that what this dark power was called? And how did this stranger know what to call it?

“Who are you?” Eris’s voice was quite but the air around her went cold with murderous intent. She turned the blind clutch into a ball of jagged ice. “How do you know so much about the Darkness? About theses powers? About the coming war? You aren’t an ordinary Guardian, that’s obviously, but what I don’t know is what you are.”

“Who ever said I was a Guardian.” 

Eris did a double take. She wasn’t a Guardian? Nobody could survive on the moon without Light, yet here this woman was. She hadn’t used a transmate, if she had, Eris would have seen her coming on one of her monitors. 

The fact that someone was willing to walk across the moon without the Light was impressive as is, but on closer inspection, Eris saw the Exo didn’t have a scratch. That was impossible. Even Guardians rarely came through without a scratch. 

“I’d love to tell you, but unfortunately I don’t have time to explain. But that will change. Come to these coordinates tomorrow. I’ll explain everything to both of you there.” The Exo placed a device on the ground, then she picked up her rifle and turned to leave, but found a spiked ice ball floating in front of her. 

“Not yet. Who else is coming and why are you in such a hurry. Talk! Or I’ll show you the depth of my current power.” Eris could feel the dark power flowing from her body. Not unlike the Light, it had been so long she had almost forgotten what it felt like.

It felt good. 

“Tell me Eris Morn, dose that sound like something you’d normally say when your barely listening?” Eris froze. She hadn’t been listening to the stranger and that wasn’t something she’d normally say. Was she already falling to the Darkness already?

“I’ll tell you everything. Just be at the coordinates tomorrow. I’ll tell you when to depart.” With that, the Exo walked a few steps forward then vanished into nothingness, leaving Eris standing alone.

After a few seconds of stunned silence, Eris picked up the device and read it, although she had a sneaking suspicion she already knew where the coordinates would lead.

And sure enough, she was proven right.

Europa.

With a heavy sigh, Eris walked over to her terminal and access Van-net. She began looking through the old files from before she had escaped from the Hell mouth. The words the Exo had said rung a bell for her and she wanted to make sure she wasn’t mistaken.

It didn’t take long to find the field report from Venus and sure enough it held the information that confirmed her theory. 

“So that was the infamous Exo stranger huh? Interesting. And she wants to meet on Europa. That can’t be a coincidence.” With a sigh, Eris stood. She hadn’t left the moon since the Io cradle incident. She had been ordered to wait while the Vanguard planned their next move, but if what the Exo stranger had said was true then she couldn’t wait. Gathering a thick cloak from her days as a Hunter, she left to prepare her ship. She doubted it would get her very far on that frozen moon, but any time not walking through knee high snow in fifty below was time that would protect herself from frostbite. 

It didn’t take her long to reach her ship or find the tools, but she didn’t have much to insulate it. Never the less Eris got to work. Her ship had been designed for stealth, not frozen moons. Meaning it was going to be an all nighter. 

As she worked, Eris thought about the other people who would be there tomorrow. She had a sneaking suspicion the Drifter was going to be one. As much as she couldn’t stand that rat, even she didn’t understand the Darkness as well as he did. It infuriated her to no end that such a selfish and petty man was their best source of information without sending Guardians to a life or death struggle. 

But then again, stranger alliances would undoubtedly form with the coming battle. She wasn’t stupid enough to think they could win on their own. Through ether personal reasons or out of necessity, every major power in Sol would have to come together and fight the greater enemy or they would all be destroyed. And even that might not be enough. 

Heh. She was such a pessimist. 

Eris closed her eyes and tried to remember her old optimistic self. Back then, she had always seen some glimmer hope, of a future were all the fight was over and humanity was able to live without fear. How had she managed to convince herself that was a possibility? Maybe it was her youth and inexperience that let her be so naïve?

No. The answer was so much simpler. Her old self was a different person entirely. Someone who had died deep inside the Hell mouth centuries ago. The current Eris Morn was someone born from her death. It was that simple. 

Slowly a smile spread across her face. “How far we’ve fallen.” She murmured. 

She missed the day were the biggest worry was space pirates nearly destroying the city.

__________________________________________________________________________________

The next day.

Eris walked through knee high snow as she shielded her face. The winds were biting at her face and the snow continued to fall without any signs of stopping. Back in the golden age Europa was considered practically unfit for colonization. While this was partly do to the Bray corporation’s influence, the majority of people had agreed without much argument. It was cold enough here that you’d die within a few minutes without a few million dollars worth of protective equipment. 

Or without rewriting reality to something more suitable for ones survival. 

Eris may have lost her light centuries ago, but she had learn a plethora of Hive arcana, so even without the Light, reality still bent to her will.

After climbing a mountain covered in ice and snow, Eris reach the coordinates the Exo stranger had given her. Here the snow had stopped and she could see the sun peking over the ice fog, but deep beneath the ice Eris could feel something sinister moving. It called to her in a manner not unlike a weapon of sorrow, but much stronger. 

Was she walking into some kind of trap?

Eris drew upon the Dark power she had acquired and pulled crystal shards of ice from the ground, a defense if thing went south, but then the ice fog cleared and she saw the power she had sensed.

In front of her was a Darkness pyramid sitting on the ice. 

How had she not noticed it before? The ice fog may have been thick, but even then she should have seen it when she had been climbing earlier. She looked around to make sure she didn’t miss anything else. And as she scanned the frozen tundra, movement caught her eye. 

A shadow swept across the ground as a ship descended from orbit. It lowered it’s landing gear and touched down a few feet away from her. Eris assumed this was one of the others the Exo stranger spoke of. Never the less, she prepared some magic to blast the ship into pieces if worst came to worst. 

The door open and a familiar, if not very liked figure stepped onto the frozen moon. The Drifter 

Of course he was the other person the Exo stranger had called. That rat was vital to understanding the Darkness. She had suspected he was invited here, but had hoped he hadn’t. Or at least someone else would be here before him. Just seeing him playing with that infernal coin rubbed her the wrong way.

Tempting as it was to blast him twenty feet backwards, Eris deactivated her magic. She could tolerate him long enough to find out what the Exo stranger had to tell, but she hoped to spend as little time in his company as possible. 

Fortunately, the Drifter didn’t have time to start a conversation as the sound of an engine caught their attention. Across the icy tundra a sparrow raced towards them. The Exo’s cloak visible above the seat.

The sparrow was unusual. It didn’t belong to anyone in the city. In fact, Eris hadn’t seen that model anywhere in system. First a gun that has part that the city was just being make and now a sparrow that nobody made. Whoever the Exo stranger is, she must have powerful people backing her. Or had a stash golden age tech hidden away somewhere.

The Exo stranger jumped off her ride, (which disappeared instantly) and walked the rest of the way on foot. Something floated out from behind her, it looked like a fish and a Ghost put together. What ever it was Eris had never seen it before. Hidden beneath her robe, Eris conjured her Dark power around her arm. She didn’t miss the casual way the Drifter hand moved to rest on his gun. So he was as obvious to what was going on as herself.

If the Exo stranger noticed, she didn’t say anything or just didn’t care. She walked right passed them and stopped a little ways in front of them. “This is what I wanted to show you.” Eris looked passed the Exo towards the black, monolithic pyramid confused. It wasn’t different then the once currently assaulting the system. 

Then, as Eris squinted her three eyes, she saw what the stranger was referring too. Lights in on pyramid glowed eerily. At first, she had thought it was the sun reflecting off of it, but the sun was behind the pyramid and the lights were in front. And thinking back, the sunlight seemed to die out as soon as it touched one of theses abominations on the other planetoids. Somehow, the one here was different then the others. And they needed to know why.

The Exo stranger turned back to them, her eyes were hard and her face set. “You wanted to know why I asked you here? It was to teach you how to use the Darkness directly. Not through a gun or a mote, but through yourselves. The time has come for you to go beyond the Light.” Eris and the Drifter exchanged a look. Both know full well what channeling the Darkness through ones body meant.

“Okay sister.” The Drifter cut in. “You know how to do that without us falling to it? Because even I don’t have an answer to that. And if anyone in this system would have an answer, it would be me.” As much as she hated to admit it, Eris know he was right, nobody knew Darkness better the the Drifter, expect maybe a Hive god. 

Without a word, the Exo stranger raised her fist. Instantly, mist gather around her hand, then she slammed it onto the ground. It shock the ground as dark blue ice shot up in columns around Eris and the Drifter. Each one was teeming with Darkness. The force of the blow brought the Drifter’s ghost out of it’s hiding spot in his Light for a few seconds. 

Shocked, Eris starred slack jawed at the Exo stranger. She had just used more power in one move then Eris had dared to use in the mouths she had her powers, and she hadn’t fallen to the influence of the Darkness where Eris was still struggling to keep herself in check. How had she done that?

“Now do you understand why it was so important I bring you all the way out here?” The stranger asked. “The power of the Darkness must be used without it’s corruption. You two have both used the Darkness before and you will again. But this time you must teach others to wield this power. We can’t win this alone.” Calmly, the Exo stranger pulled out two black shards and handed them to Eris and the Drifter. They were made of the same material as the pyramids. So this was how the Darkness gave it’s power.

“This war is so much bigger then just the system of Sol. The entire universe will be dragged into this conflict if it’s not stopped here. I hope your ready because the coming battle will decide the fate of everything in this universe. And potentially beyond.” Eris closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She had spent her entire life fighting the Darkness and now she was expected to weld it? This doesn’t feel right.

But the stranger was right. The situation was desperate, and time was running out, for everyone. With a heavy sigh, she opened her eyes. No more doubt or hesitation. If it gave then the edge, then she would take the Dark to destroy the Dark. With her resolve hardened, she looked over at the Drifter, then the Exo stranger, she had made up her mind.

“Well then. Let’s get started shall we?”

The end.

**Author's Note:**

> If your reading this, please leave so constructive criticism or just criticism so I can improve. 
> 
> Thanks in advance! :)


End file.
